Who are Quality Assurance principles for?

The primary responsibility for the quality of care, social and support services rests with the formal planners, regulators, providers and inspectors of such services. Therefore, Quality Assurance (QA) principles are primarily aimed at those professionals and organisations who are responsible for financing and regulating, commissioning, delivering or evaluating/inspecting care and social services. However, traditional services are being increasingly replaced or complemented by more personalised service arrangements whereby individuals become ‘commissioners’ of their own social services. For instance, individuals assessed as being in need of support provided by public social services are increasingly securing their own personal budgets. These personal budgets allow them to purchase and organise their own service packages from the providers that they choose. This could potentially extend also to assessing the outcomes and satisfaction with the services they purchase. In these increasingly diverse social services and care markets, financers, providers, commissioners and regulators will need to identify how they assess the quality of such personal arrangements. There will be the need to come up with a framework that ensures high quality services for these individuals. Therefore, establishing and continuously monitoring principles of quality assurance is desirable not only for formal regulators, commissioners and providers, but also for those individuals who are choosing their own care and social support services to help ensure they have a better understanding of what they need to look for in a quality service.